What Will It Take To Lose LPs | Early-Stage Secondaries | $1B+ IPOs Up 74%

In this edition Alex dives into why LPs keep quiet when the VCs they back make unsavory comments and how that may change in the future, I chat with a U.K.-based fund bringing liquidity to the early stages, we look at 2021 IPO data that shows there was $1.6 trillion in collective value for unicorn IPOs last year, and we meet a startup that looks to better connect patients to the $30 billion in yearly philanthropic medical aid. Let’s do it.

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It wasn’t the past month’s only instance of controversial remarks prompting social media backlash and public outcry or calls for divestiture from tech leaders. Tweets by Palantir and 8VC cofounder Joe Lonsdale claimed "broken" culture and "out of wedlock births" were reasons for Black entrepreneurs raising less capital than founders of other races. Black investors voiced their exhaustion at media requests to weigh in on Lonsdale, noting that non-Black VCs rarely speak out about racism in their industry. (Lonsdale later tweeted: “it’s important to be aware of past racism, kind, inclusive, and against actual racism of all sorts.”) Then Chamath Palihapitiya, the Social Capital cofounder and SPAC specialist, sparked an entire news cycle, commenting that “nobody cares” about China’s suspected genocide against the Uyghur population, including him. Politicians got in on the criticism; Palihapitiya’s partial ownership of the Golden State Warriors led the team to publicly distance itself. Palihapitiya issued a sort-of apology.

The aggregate of these controversies made Midas Touch wonder: what is that uncrossable line in venture capital? What if instead of a startup unicorn chairman, Bateman had instead been a VC? Would such an investor’s limited partners, who provide their capital to invest, have any recourse to take action?

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The first step was getting all these sources of aid in one perpetually up-to-date database. Once that had largely been built, Davidoff was left to figure out what kind of business model would best bring the information to underlying patients in a way they would actually utilize. He landed on hospitals. “Hospitals can’t turn you away if you can't pay,” he tells Midas Touch. “They will be on the hook if they don’t get paid. They will struggle to keep the lights on and continue to serve the community. Let’s focus on this segment and help their patients.” The integrated software company he built to do just that, Atlas Health, launched in 2019 and has since taken off, adding 40 healthcare systems to its roster and looking to expand....

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